I missed a week at the gym. Did I lose my progress?

No, you didn't lose your progress. A week off costs you very little strength and almost no muscle. If anything, the first session back often feels a bit heavy and then your usual numbers return within a session or two.

Strength and muscle take weeks of consistent training to build, and they take a good while to fade. You'd have to stay away for several weeks before you notice a real drop.

What actually happens in a week

• Strength: basically unchanged. Some people even come back stronger because they were slightly run down.
• Muscle size: no meaningful change. Muscles can look a little flatter for a few days if you've been eating or drinking differently, but that's water and glycogen, not lost tissue.
• Cardio fitness: this fades a little faster than strength, but a week is still small. You might be a bit more out of breath on your first run back.
• Habit: this is the real cost. The longer you're away, the easier it is to stay away.

When it starts to matter

Roughly, here's how it goes:

• 1 to 2 weeks: nothing worth worrying about
• 3 to 4 weeks: a small drop in strength and endurance, regained quickly
• 2 months or more: a noticeable drop, but you rebuild faster than you built it the first time, because your body remembers

How to go back

Don't try to make up for the lost week. Just do your normal workout, or lower the weights by about 10 percent for the first session if you feel stiff. Don't cram two weeks of training into one.

If you were away because of illness, wait until you feel fully better, and if you had a fever or chest symptoms, ease in for a few days. If an injury kept you out, check with a doctor or physical therapist before you resume anything heavy.

Longer breaks come with their own considerations, which getting back into the gym after a break covers.

What to do now

The only mistake here is letting one missed week become a missed month. Put your next session on the calendar today, make it a normal one and move on.

A daily match can help with the restart once you're feeling well. In League of Fitness a missed day only costs a little rating that you win back, and a short session or an easy walk synced from Apple Health counts toward the day, so the first day back doesn't have to be a big one.